Microsoft reboots the experience with new Windows Phone OS

Article No :485 | February 15, 2010 | by Alex Schleifer

Via Engagdet: "The phone operating system does away with pretty much every scrap of previous mobile efforts from Microsoft, from the look and feel down to the underlying code—everything is brand new." Video:

Microsoft has officially unveiled its new mobile OS and wiped its slate entirely clean of the oft derided Windows Mobile platform. New code, new name, and a new experience that builds on that of the Zune. It's great to see Microsoft really do its own thing here and by the looks of it do it well. Looks like we may have three viable smartphone OSes now.

Microsoft's new UI makes the iPhone's actually look out-of-date and it's fantastic to see so much courage and innovation from them. I would actually be more excited about a tablet with this OS than the iPad. The official video:

Comments

My understanding is that Flash was not going to be available in the first release but it is coming according to Adobe.
http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2010/03/09/flash-player-10-1-and-windows-phone-7/

The OS7 is a step forward for MS but 'courageous' is not the word I would use to describe a company that stubbornly puts aesthetics and usability at the bottom of their list. It feels like a new generation of MS designers has forced MS to change it's ways.

My UX observations:

The lack of iconography forces the OS to use a lot of words and pictures. This can be taxing on the screen real estate and foreign language porting.

There are a lot of multi-screen menus, drilling down to necessary data may be time consuming, I hope they can create short work for busy people (and our fingers).

Looking forward to the UX MAG review.

Not necessarily UX, but business minded individuals may not want the lifestyle menus and transitions to clutter their efficiency.

The Zune is a casual entertainment device, a Phone is a different tool, though it can be entertaining, there seems to be efficiency sacrifices being payed toward the god of 'cool'.

Overall, its an attractive experience, I hope they have the 'courage' to use it in their actual OS.

While there are some conventions it does (and must follow) the UI is indeed a big step forward. I agree that they're late with delivering a smartphone UI which doesn't suck but now that it is on its way we need to judge it for what it is: a truly original, even ballsy interface that, I believe, delivers something different to any other currently on the market. With everyone copying the iPhone we're in dire need of diversity.